Freaky Flash 6 Fishy Features

donpardo writes "I upgraded to Flash 6 last week (to patch a security hole). When I right clicked on a Flash ad at abcnews.com, and pulled down to Settings I got a tabbed dialogue box asking if I wanted to give them access to my cam and microphone. Clicking through on the tabs revealed that the microphone and the camera had already been detected and that the microphone was active. I doubt the camera or the microphone were sending information out but this still seems invasive. Here are Macromedia's statements about the mic and the camera. In addition there is a setting to ask how much information the site can store on your computer. The default value is 100K. According to the information statement "Data can be anything from your user name to your current score in an interactive game to a list of stocks in your portfolio ... The data is not public, but the privacy of this data depends on the policies of the web site where the movie is hosted."" I thought the first sentence of this submission was telling ...

Comments

Is there no shame

[tfreport]

Ok, I understand that the technology is here and that it is possible. I understand that some people want to know what your working on in your computer or the sites you are visiting for advertising purposes and what not.

What I cannot fathom, is how could anyone purposely write a program to spy into my room, listening to me or watching what I am doing? Doesn't anyone have a conscious anymore? Come on. This is my house, my life, stay the f@#k out!

a bit alarmist, no?

[Torinaga-Sama]

Let me tell you this. No one wants to look into your webcam unless you are only slightly over 18, female and have an aversion to wearing clothing.

A camera and a Microphone are two very useful items for online communication. If you don't want to be seen or heard, don't freaking buy them.

Flash has to evolve like anything else to stay alive. Integrating more multimedia functionality into its program can't be a bad thing. It isn't being invasive, it's off by default. Go cry wolf where it's important.